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Water And Shark International Inc. is a multinational accounting and consulting firm, founded by young Indian CA Harsh Patel in 2012. Having successfully rendered services in the accounting and consulting field on a global level, Water and Shark has now ventured into the legal sector through its member firm Water And Shark Legal which shall operate as a multi-disciplinary legal service firm in India with an aim of providing legal advisory and compete litigation services across India.

Water and Shark has joined hands with young endowed Ms. Kruti Bhavsar who is practicing as an Advocate at the Bombay High Court and as a Counsel at the Supreme Court of India to set up Water And Shark Legal- A multidisciplinary law firm. At present the firm operates from Mumbai and has associate offices across major cities.

The functioning and administration of Water And Shark Legal shall be fully independent and the clients of Water And Shark International Inc. and /or any of its networked member firms and/ or any foreign law firms shall directly approach Water And Shark Legal for legal advice or services. Therefore, the firm ensures that its functioning is in compliance with the Advocates Act 1961 and the Bar Council of India [BCI] Rules.

Legal Expertise – A need of the hour

Entrepreneurs are constantly finding ways to expand their business and attain growth.  Some business owners play with the risk and compromise on safeguarding their interests by not hiring legal service and legal advisory to avoid financial burdens and later end up into huge losses and legal difficulties.

A company is unpredictably vulnerable on all fronts in the absence of an experienced lawyer and advisor. With the current market scenario, where the success rate and risks are equally high, Water and Shark Legal offers a complete legal road map to ensure your growth and minimize legal risks.

The Founder’s  words

Harsh Patel, Founder & Global CEO – Water and Shark, said

Water And Shark is an idea and a vision and not just a company. I started my journey in 2012 with the objective of expanding worldwide and through various sectors and services. Water And Shark thrives on and believes in practical approach. Many a times, our clients faced legal challenges and therefore we recognized the need of having a dedicated legal service to protect the best interest of our clients.

With the commencement of Water And Shark Legal, we have expanded our wing into the legal service sector and I believe that having legal experts on board shall ensure that every entrepreneur and corporate body put out their most confident feet in the market. Water and Shark Legal shall operate independently from Mumbai, India and we are sure that this partnership will help us achieve new heights and serve our client’s better. I heartily congratulate the team of Water And Shark Legal for setting up the boutique firm and I extend my best wishes to the young and dynamic team of lawyers.

What the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Water and Shark Legal said

Advocate Kruti Bhavsa, Co-founder & Managing Partner – Water and Shark Legal, said

Law and Legal policies play a vital role in the growth and expansion of any business. A good legal framework and strong legal policies are also essential for creating a strong base on which you can build your business. At Water And Shark Legal, our idea is to engineer your business goals and strengthen your position so that every deal becomes a successful step towards growth.

Through our team of experts, we provide all legal solutions under one roof; from civil, criminal, banking litigation to documentation, policy and contract drafting, legal structuring and planning. Our aim is to ensure that we stay with our clients at every step they take and work hand in hand with corporates and entrepreneurs and be a part of their journey and act as their legal safeguard.

One must not forget that filing incorrect documents, entering into voidable contracts or following incompetent & unsafe ways can ruin your business

Legal service and advisory is vital for businesses because it’s always better to avoid legal problems rather than fixing them.

Many business owners lack the necessary knowledge and experience to deal with different legal aspects of running a company. Business transactions involve different stages of negotiation, preparation of paper work, and evaluations. Consulting a legal professional to deal with your business solutions can be very helpful in filing reports, securing legal protection and protecting your business interests.

Most businesses neglect the importance of legal advisor until they receive summons or find themselves before any Court. It is therefore always beneficial to appoint a good business lawyer before you get sued.

Also, with the increasing complexities in law and growing cross border transactions, it is necessary to have a legal expert on board to help you draft the best contracts and provide viable legal solutions to face legal challenges. A good lawyer ensures that his client’s business interests and legal rights are protected.

Sometimes a business needs Corporate Restructuring, in order to make it more profitable and efficient. This involves the process of making changes in the composition of the company’s/firm’s one or more business portfolios in order to have a more profitable enterprise. A commercial lawyer ensures that the restructuring is done in compliance with all corporate laws and regulations and at the same time sketches a profitable legal structure for the company.

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Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist, Asha Jadeja Motwani has announced the launch of India Tech Park at CES2020, the largest and most influential technology event worldwide, which is going to be held in Las Vegas from January 7~10, 2020.

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India Tech Park is a platform for Indian start-ups working towards a sustainable future utilizing technological innovation and creating products that tackle pressing global problems.

The purpose of the first ever India Tech Park is to showcase India’s blooming consumer electronic systems startups globally and provide them exposure to the international startup ecosystem. The startups chosen are driven by responsible young entrepreneurs with sensitivity to climate, water, and sustainable food practices.

Sharing her vision about the India Tech Park, Asha Jadeja Motwani, Founder of Motwani Jadeja Foundation, said

The startup ecosystem in India is still evolving. The promise shown by Indian start-ups is incredible. Buoyed by bold, fresh economic policies and reduced red tape, Indian startups can truly lead the world and can contribute to the goal of a $5 Trillion economy by 2025 and even overshoot it to reach a $10 Trillion economy if nurtured and supported well.

The government has taken a lot of initiatives to provide a push to the startup culture in the country but the international exposure to the enterprising startups is still relatively low.  Indian policy makers need to be part of the macroeconomic world and talk in global terms to compete in the world economy.

At the time, when connectivity and reach are no longer problems, the government must take a stride forward and push the startups to get the global exposure which would benefit the country as a whole and India Tech park is igniting the spark.

Few of the startups promoted by India Tech Park in CES 2020 are Calamus, Hyper Lychee, Wagr, Altifarm, Strom Motors, and Stempedia.

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In its efforts to enable the startup ecosystem in gaining competitive advantage, Microsoft ScaleUp has extended support to 18 startups in the last 12 months. Part of the Microsoft for Startups initiative, Microsoft ScaleUp provides startups access to world-class technology, mentorship and other community benefits that further their expansion on a global scale.

The selected startups in the region are focused on areas of fin-tech, blockchain, health-tech and IoT, among others. Leveraging Microsoft’s tech expertise and global enterprise clients, the program is designed to help startups explore emerging technologies and tap into newer markets. All the participating startups are well on their product development journey and are gearing up for Microsoft’s co-sell program.

Lathika Pai, Country Head, Microsoft for Startups – MENA and SAARC, said

Microsoft has always actively engaged with the startup ecosystem across the country. Globally the success story of the startup ecosystem in the region is drawing great attention. The Microsoft ScaleUp program has shaped several startups in their journey to being ‘enterprise ready’.

As part of Microsoft ScaleUp, during the engagement spanning eight to 12 months, the selected startups have opportunities to regularly engage with industry experts and leverage the Microsoft Partner Network for business growth. Microsoft helps accelerate their startup journeys through mentorship, streamlined go-to-market [GTM] activities and access to world-class technology resources. In addition, these startups have access to a global alumni network of startup graduates for peer support and networking.

The 18 startups that have benefited from the Microsoft ScaleUp program this year include:

  1. Finbox, a comprehensive financial intelligence platform with proprietary data connectors, enabling business to power risk management, collections, wealth management and cross-sell.
  2. Let’s Venture, an online funding platform that makes the process of fundraising [early and growth stage] easy, efficient and transparent for both startups and investors.
  3. Paanini, an innovative AI technology company whose product brand JiffyRPA brings in automation with AI technologies.
  4. EdGE Networks, a technology company that has built an AI-powered talent decision platform to help organizations simplify their talent decisions.
  5. PickMe, a mobility app from Colombo, is a market leader in mobility solutions.
  6. Linear Squared, a Machine Learning focused company building SaaS products to address challenging enterprise business problems such as accurate forecasting at scale, inventory and manufacturing optimization across multiple industries.
  7. Whizpace, a wireless communication solutions provider that uses intelligent technologies to enable better utilization of spectrum for IoT and broadband communication.
  8. Worxogo, a neuroeconomics and AI startup with an AI coach that drives sales rep and back office team productivity using behavior shaping nudges and delivers higher sales, more engaged teams and better productivity.
  9. Smarten Spaces, a technology company that has built an end-to-end AI and IoT platform to make spaces easy to work, explore or live in.
  10. Circle of Life Healthcare Private Limited helps manage infections through the first of its kind AI product ZEVAC that uses machine learning to predict culture report results instantly and augments empiric antibiotic therapy by clinicians, thereby fighting anti-microbial resistance.
  11. iNICU Medical Private Limited is engaged in development and application of IoT, AI and predictive analytics solutions for early diagnosis of critical diseases and improving quality of healthcare to neonates.
  12. Eleven01 blockchain protocol has been developed to bring true adoption and enterprise scalability through its private network, which allows for seamless integration of core blockchain services across existing platforms and technology infrastructure spanning various industry verticals.
  13. JusPay, a full-stack digital payments platform that enables secure and frictionless payment experiences, enabling organizations to scale their online payments with a fully-managed SaaS platform.
  14. Vunet Systems enables enterprises to deliver delightful customer experiences by elevating traditional, siloed IT monitoring into unified views across customer journeys through its purpose-built AI driven transaction journey platform.
  15. Mihup provides an intelligent voice interface for media and entertainment, connected cars, intelligent IVRS and smart homes, in Indian languages.
  16. Meddo provides comprehensive one-stop solution to all health needs, starting with top doctor consultations to diagnostic services, wellness and lifestyle support along with solving for digitization of health records.
  17. Myelin Foundry, a deep tech product startup that transforms human experiences and industry outcomes by building AI algorithms on video, voice, and sensor data for edge devices.
  18. Bionic Yantra, a medical robotics company that enables rehabilitation for various medical conditions and has developed an exoskeleton to help patients walk.

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WitBlox, an edu-tech startup, has raised a funding of INR 1.3 crores from Mumbai Angels Network.  Witblox was founded in 2014, headquartered in Mumbai by Amit Modi. WitBlox is creating an ecosystem of gamified robotics learning for children aged (8-16 years) through plug and play hardware toolkits across science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM].

The company was earlier incubated with Neotech, an incubator and accelerator from Ambuja Neotia.

24 investors from the Mumbai Angels Network have participated in this round. Amit Modi, Founder and CEO of Witblox, said

MA not only helped me raise funds seamlessly, it connected me to its vast network of Investors across cities in India. With these funds, we plan to bring about significant changes in our strategy.

Mumbai Angels Investor, Aditya Sanghi said

I am happy to be associated with the next phase of growth of Witblox. While helping children learn by building is rewarding in itself, I think this is a great team with potential to build a big business. To make it big, business needs a motivated passionate team propelled by a purpose catering a growth market. I think Witblox has the right ingredients and it is time to execute heads down.

Mumbai Angels Investor, Vivek Lodha said

A lot of people I meet want kids to be learning fast without using iPad and other gadgets. This is a perfect way to make your kids grow smart with  real experiential learning and I’m glad to back WitBlox to achieve this.

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-promoter and CEO Mumbai Angels Network, commented

We are happy to welcome witblox in our expanding diversified portfolio. We see increasing activity in edutech space and are hoping that Witblox becomes a star in our edutech portfolio.

About WitBlox
Techshiksha is a private limited company based out of Mumbai, India. WitBlox is an edu-tech startup creating an ecosystem of gamified robotics learning for children aged (8-16 years) through plug and play hardware toolkit across science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM].

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Five years ago, MoEngage was an idea in the minds of founders Raviteja Dodda and Yashwant Kumar; a design to transform user experience and help internet companies retain customers. Today, the startup counts five of the Fortune 500 brands as its customers along with internet biggies such as OYO, Gaana, Tokopedia, and Traveloka among several others.

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Here’s the story of MoEngage – APAC’s fastest-growing customer engagement and analytics platform.

Raviteja Dodda and Yashwant Kumar, both alumni of IIT – Kharagpur, having co-founded DelightCircle app – a leading offers network in India, had first-hand experienced the profits of using technology to engage and retain users. They joined hands to build a prototype in early 2014. The product was ready six months later with a few customers willing to try out. Among other things, the cloud-based product created a unified view of the users’ multi-point interactions with a brand and start using this data to personalize communication with these users.

Today, MoEngage has emerged a purpose-built mobile marketing platform suitable for enterprises in Asia, the U.S., and Europe. Over 50% of the company’s revenue now comes from enterprise clients – an indication of the widespread adoption and maturity of the product. The company grew 200% in the last financial year and is now targeting a revenue of $25MM by 2020. It has raised $14.5 million in funding from marquee investors – Matrix Partners, Ventureast, Helion VC, and Exfinity Ventures. More importantly, the company today has over 500 clients in over 35 countries.

MoEngage is a company who planned to reach $25mn in 2020.Unlike most saas startups who focus on established categories like CRM, ERP, Cloud, etc. MoEngage decided to start off as a cross-channel customer engagement platform by creating a category itself. The business & Marketing operations was focused to initiate a product-feature led growth model primarily targeting enterprise as a category whereas others target SMBs. Asia and SEA markets were chosen for business operations vs companies who typically target the West for such growth.

MoEngage was also recently included in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Marketing Platforms – for the second time in a row and believes it (inclusion) is a validation of its image as a complete marketing automation platform for digital enterprises. It is also the only mobile marketing platform from APAC to have featured in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for two consecutive years.

As the company marks its fifth anniversary, Raviteja Dodda, CEO and Co-founder, MoEngage, says

Building a global business requires a relentless focus on the product and the people. We have created a company that is driven by values that encourage freedom, ownership, and leadership. The results of which, is seen in the traction for our product and the positive feedback from our customers. The company is 200+ strong and has offices in  Bengaluru, Jakarta, London, Berlin, and San Fransisco.

MoEngage’s phenomenal five-year journey is also a strong counter to those who claim B2B businesses can’t be built in India and to those who typically focus B2B selling toward the West. “We developed an East-first approach to our product. Large consumer base who are increasingly getting on the internet to get things done, rapid adoption of smartphones, its unique technology & cultural challenges, and rise in disposable income made East a perfect fit for our product,” said Raviteja Dodda, Co-founder and CEO, MoEngage.

The customer continues to be at the heart of MoEngage’s growth. Case in point, MoEngage Sherpa, a set of machine-learning algorithms that auto-optimizes the content and timing of the messages delivered to users. This saves MoEngage customers countless hours and dollars spent on experimenting with marketing campaigns. Another example is the proprietary Push Amplification Platform.

It effectively solves a problem marketers all over the world have been grappling with, high failure rates on push notification delivery. Recently, MoEngage consolidated its customer-focused approach with yet another thought-leading product, Dynamic Product Messaging. DPM enables companies to make highly personalized recommendations to their customers, dramatically transforming the user experience.

About the future, this is what Raviteja has to say

It’s gratifying to know that we have been able to register such strong growth and establish a strong brand identity in these last five years, merely on the strength of our superior technology and relentless focus on customers. We want to continue doing that and work towards our vision of creating the world’s most trusted marketing cloud out of India.

About MoEngage

MoEngage is an intelligent customer engagement platform, built for the mobile-first world. With AI-powered automation, optimization capabilities, and in-built analytics MoEngage enables hyper-personalization at scale across multiple channels like mobile push, email, in-app, web push, On-site messages, and SMS. Fortune 500 brands across 35+ countries such as McAfee, Samsung, Hearst, and Deutsche Telekom use MoEngage to orchestrate their omnichannel campaigns. MoEngage has been featured on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and is the youngest company on the list.  For more information, please visit MoEngage.

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As India continues to take swift steps towards digitalization, fuelled by policy reforms, technological innovation and digital transformation, India’s start-up ecosystem is looking at the threshold of the next wave of growth by leveraging new technological innovations. The National Association of Software and Services Companies [NASSCOM], launched their report on the Indian Tech Start-up Ecosystem – Leading Tech in the 20s, at the side-lines of the of the 16th Anniversary Edition of NASSCOM Product Conclave 2019.The report has been commissioned along with Zinnov.

Adding over 1300+ start-ups in 2019, India continues to reinforce its position as the third largest start-up ecosystem across the world, taking the total number of tech start-ups to 8900-9300 in the last five years.

According to the report, investment in start-ups were steady with USD 4.4Bn in Jan to Sep 2019 across 450 start-ups at a 5% year on year growth trajectory. Funding saw a huge spike at the early stages [Series A, B] as well, with USD 1.6Bn being recorded at 70% YoY growth. The trend witnessed over the year was that start-ups are driving focus more towards the B2B space and almost half of the country’s start-ups are offering enterprise focused services.

India also witnessed the addition of 7 Unicorns in 2019 till Aug, taking the total tally up to 24, which is the third highest number of Unicorns in a single country in the world. Among the new unicorns, it was commendable to see that sectors such as gaming, SCM & logistics and automotive are receiving the recognition they deserve. There are also over 50 potential unicorns in the country at present that have received cumulative funding > USD 50 Mn; pool grew 3X over last year with 35 new additions in 2019.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said

The start-up landscape in the country is becoming the epitome of innovation, with companies bringing out solutions that are aimed at solving locally relevant issues. However, to simulate innovation, government and corporates need to focus on increasing their role as prominent stakeholders playing the part of venture capitalists and providing the appropriate market access, funding, and guidance to seed stage start-ups.

Today, India stands at a very exciting threshold, with the advent of several new technologies, newer avenues have opened. Deep-tech is no longer a mere conversation, but is already seen as a tangible, exciting prospect, enriching lives and enhancing the potential for innovation. There has been a rapid growth in the number of deep-tech start-ups as well as start-ups focusing on the underserved markets.

Increase in internet penetration, better infrastructure for digital transactions and the Indian government’s push towards digital inclusion have evangelized start-ups. Entrepreneurs are now focusing on creating solutions using deep-tech such as artificial intelligence, analytics, augmented reality/virtual reality, blockchain and internet of things, among others.

Over 18% of all start-ups are now leveraging deep-tech, which means there are over 1600 such companies in India. This number constituted only 8% of start-ups incepted in 2014 and has seen a 40% CAGR over the past five years.

Ms. Debjani Ghosh further added

Indian start-up ecosystem has definitely come a long way in providing a level playing field for innovators to flourish by strengthening capabilities and fostering co-creation. The next wave of growth will be at the junction of convergence of technologies, where different sectors will embrace digital to re-define their operations.

The country has over 335 active incubators and accelerators with a capacity to enable over 5000 start-ups every year. More than 65% share of incubators and accelerator programs were added in the last five years, out of which 57% are active outside Tier 1 cities.  The robust start-up ecosystem of India is at a cumulative valuation of USD 95-101Bn and has given rise to 390,000 – 430,000 direct jobs with over 60,000 jobs in 2019 alone.

NASSCOM aims to accelerate this ecosystem significantly by 2025. This entails increasing the number of unicorns to 95-105 potentially and the cumulative valuation to USD 350-390Bn. The target is to also achieve 1100-1250k direct jobs in the start-up ecosystem by 2025. This can be done by improving certain capabilities in proving institutional support at the early stages, so start-ups can tap global markets as well as local markets with ease in public procurement norms and processes.

NASSCOM also recommends building sector specific initiatives such as global centres of excellence [or innovation clusters] for each industry along with industry-specific physical and digital sandboxes. Another area that requires attention is increased corporate and equity investor participation at pre-seed and seed stages; expansion of CSR guidelines to increase capital availability and encouraging the establishment of corporate innovation labs. NASSCOM will continue its drive towards catalysing emerging tech start-ups, build category leaders and support them to create not only for India but also scale up and solve for the world.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Starting a business and helping it grow over many years can be one of life’s most rewarding experiences. On the other hand, even especially successful business owners often reach a point where it feels like a change of direction could be in order.

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At such junctures, it frequently makes sense to consult with some experts in private equity to see what they have to offer. There are a number of reasons why it can be productive to negotiate a deal with private equity investors.

Relatively few companies ever reach the point of having initial public offerings, with the vast majority remaining private throughout their lifespans. Although publicly traded firms do account for around one-third of all private-sector employment in the United States, that leaves the rest to companies where shares of ownership cannot be bought on public markets at all.

This might make it seem as if publicly traded companies had definite, unconquerable advantages over those that remain privately held. While there are certainly benefits inherent in going public, private companies have options of their own.

Investors and firms that specialize in working with or taking over privately owned businesses, for instance, oversee an increasingly important segment of the economy. Accounting for somewhere around $500 billion in activity worldwide in 2013, private equity deals are quickly closing in on the trillion-dollar mark.

Business owners who reach a certain stage of life or who simply want to explore new options quite often find that private equity arrangements make excellent sense. Some of the reasons why entrepreneurs and others most often partner or make deals with private equity firms include:

Growth

Even businesses that have ready access to capital in the form of bank loans and lines of credit can find it wise to look for other ways of funding growth. Guarantees, usage restrictions, and loan officers who lack understanding often make turning to private equity investors far more viable. Professionals in the field of private equity tend to be a lot more interested in funding innovative, ambitious ideas than is typical of staid, conservative bankers. Even though a deal will generally mean giving up some equity in a company, the growth it enables can easily repay that many times over.

Liquidity

Selling a business can prove a lot more difficult than expected, even when the firm in question is one of the most competitive in its market. Some investors who approach retirement find themselves feeling forced to stick around to wait for an appropriate buyer. Private equity investors will often be a lot more responsive than other potential buyers and be better funded, as well. Having access to liquidity on demand might be the key needed to segue gracefully into a new stage of life.

Expertise

Even especially successful entrepreneurs can easily find themselves reaching their limits at certain points. Bringing on a private equity partner can provide access to highly developed skills and huge amounts of relevant experience. That will sometimes allow a business which had started to seem a bit boring or stagnant to become every bit as thrilling and full of potential as it had been in the past.

For reasons like these and a number of others, business owners regularly find that it makes excellent sense to at least look into what private equity investors might have to offer. Although there will sometimes be more appropriate options, entrepreneurs in a wide variety of common situations more and more often opt to sign private equity deals, as the statistics show.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Microsoft’s M12, Mayfield and Pivotal Ventures announced the second global Female Founders Competition to accelerate funding for women entrepreneurs developing B2B, SAAS, and deeptech solutions. Eligible women-led startups developing enterprise tech solutions in the United States, Europe, Israel and India are encouraged to submit applications beginning Oct. 17, 2019.

Four winning companies will receive a total of $6 million in venture funding, along with access to technology, resources, mentoring and other benefits.

Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice-President, Business Development, Microsoft Corp, said

Last year’s competition helped highlight that there are innovative female entrepreneurs developing enterprise tech solutions, and they just aren’t getting equal access to capital. The tech industry can’t afford to keep leaving women’s good ideas on the table.

We need to level the playing field for female entrepreneurs, and together with Mayfield and Pivotal Ventures, we aim to do just that with our second Female Founders Competition.

Venture capital funding, particularly for seed-stage companies, is critical to power ideas from incubation to go-to-market. Venture funding for female-founded companies continues to be nominal in comparison with dollars invested in male-only-led teams. Last year, companies founded solely by women garnered 2.3% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups, according to PitchBook [Source].

Regardless of this disadvantage, female founders continue to deliver outsized returns. In a study conducted by MassChallenge and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), women-founded businesses delivered more than two times as much revenue per dollar invested than their male counterparts. If women entrepreneurs received funding on par with their male colleagues, BCG estimates the global economy could experience up to a $5 trillion boost.

According to Gartner

The enterprise software market will experience the strongest growth in 2019, reaching $457 billion, up 9% from $419 billion in 2018. Investing in women-led enterprise companies is essential to economic growth and to closing the gender funding gap.

Navin Chaddha, MD, Mayfield, said

As a firm with a 50-year history of people-first investing, we are always looking for new ways to discover bold entrepreneurs. We are thrilled to partner with M12 and Pivotal Ventures on this innovative Female Founders Competition, through which we will find and invest in women creating built-to-last enterprise companies.

In addition to providing funding, we plan to share our playbook with competition winners on how to accelerate their journey from idea to iconic company.

Melinda Gates, Philanthropist and Founder of Pivotal Ventures, said

I am delighted to partner with M12 and Mayfield on this important competition. Enterprise technology is shaping our world in countless ways, but it will never reach its full potential unless women and their ideas are equally represented within the field.

Submissions will be accepted from Oct. 17, 2019, to Dec. 15, 2019, and are open across Europe, India, Israel, Canada [excluding Quebec] and the United States. Companies will be eligible to apply if they have at least one female founder, have raised no more than $5 million in combined equity funding and/or debt loans upon date of application, and offer or intend to release a product, service or platform addressing a critical business problem for a global market.

A live finals pitch competition will take place March 18-19, 2020, with the announcement of winners to follow shortly thereafter. Two enterprise software startups will earn investment awards of $2 million each, and two deeptech startups innovating through substantial scientific and research advances will earn investment awards of $1 million each.

Full guidelines and contest information can be found at www.FemaleFoundersComp.com